A gift to Chicago's smallest citizens

April 08, 2008|By Lois Wille and Adele Simmons and Lois Wille and Adele Simmons are co-chairwomen of the All Chicago Children's Museum Committee. Wille is the author of "Forever Open, Clear and Free: The Struggle for Chicago's Lakefront."

In 1836, a year before Chicago was incorporated as a city, the State of Illinois asked three men to sell the little village's undeveloped areas to pay for a new shipping canal. They did, but they refused to sell the lakefront. Instead, the three -- Gurdon Hubbard, William Archer and William Thornton -- wrote on their map: "Public Ground -- a Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of any Buildings or Other Obstruction Whatever."

The result is 2,800 acres of spectacular lakefront parks. But what a struggle to create them. Along the way there have been monumental blunders, shameful neglect, courtroom fights and noisy public hearings. The long crusade for a better lakefront continues, distilled now into this question: How should that 19th Century admonition apply to a 21st Century metropolis?

We may get some answers as plans for a new Chicago Children's Museum at the northern edge of Grant Park are given to city officials later this month. Grant is Chicago's revered front lawn, its first lakefront park. It was the subject of A. Montgomery Ward's 20-year legal battle to clear it of ruins and rubble and an old armory where "joy reigned unrefined," in the immortal words of one brothel madam.

So far, much of what has been said and published about the museum's plans has been so passionate that a rational examination has been impossible. It's time to cool the hot rhetoric and consider the facts of the museum's proposal.

Ward won his original 1890 suit to clean out Grant Park, but a year later he consented to construction of the Art Institute of Chicago across Michigan Avenue from his office building. That changed the nature of the park. Look at it today: The northern portion has evolved into a world-famous cultural and entertainment complex. A "public ground?" Yes. Free of "buildings" and "obstructions?" No. Toward the end of his life, Ward said he regretted giving his consent. But would any of us trade Millennium Park and the Art Institute for pastoral open space? And don't forget, the major portion of the park, from Jackson Boulevard south to Roosevelt Road, is faithful to Ward's serene vision. It should stay that way.

Any change to Grant Park, whether in the active northern end or the passive southern, must respect its unique place in Chicago's history. It is not a neighborhood park. It belongs to no single ward, no single group of residents. Any addition or subtraction must enhance its role as Chicago's original "public ground," welcoming all the people of the city, whatever their race, age or economic status. The proposed Children's Museum meets this test, for these reasons:

*It fits seamlessly into Millennium Park's cluster of cultural and entertainment venues along East Randolph Street. But those are for grown-ups and older children. The youngest have fun seeing their images in the "Bean" and splashing in Crown Fountain, but they have nothing comparable to the Harris Theater or Pritzker Pavilion. The museum, where youngsters learn while they play, fills that gap. They enjoy racing along architect Frank Gehry's serpentine bridge above Millennium, but so far it's a bridge to nowhere. In this new site, the Children's Museum will be waiting for them.

*The museum will not rob Grant Park of green space or intrude on its vistas. The building's grassy, landscaped roofs would terrace down from Randolph to the park's Bicentennial Plaza. Its highest point will be its glass entrance pavilion, rising 20 feet above Randolph to accommodate an elevator to its lower levels; the nearby Harris Theater is 39 feet high. The museum's two glass sculptures that serve as skylights rise 16 feet above Bicentennial Plaza; the Pritzker Pavilion soars 130 feet above ground level.

The museum proposal has been labeled, bizarrely, a "land grab." On the contrary, the Chicago Children's Museum is a non-profit institution that is raising $100 million to build its new home. In addition, it will replace the ugly, 12,000-square-foot concrete bunker that is the current Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse with a 20,000-square-foot grass-topped structure nestled into the corner of Randolph and Columbus Drive. The museum's board is committed to finding the resources to pay for it -- a gift to the park. The elevator in the museum's entrance pavilion will be open to the public, providing disabled access to the new fieldhouse -- currently there is none -- and the parking garage below the plaza.

*Unlike the museum's current cramped home on Navy Pier or any of the other suggested sites for its new facility, the Grant Park location has abundant parking for cars and buses as well as excellent access to public transportation.